Champagne, scotch and sparkling wine are usually among the festive season’s bestselling products at the LCBO.

But this year, staff were unable to keep bottles of Cognac on store shelves at downtown Toronto’s Queens Quay location.

“With Cognacs, we got hit harder than I would have expected,” said sales representative Nathan Lavier.

The busiest time of year for the government-owned liquor retailer, sales this December are expected to reach last year’s $620 million mark, about 14 per cent of its annual haul.

But it wasn’t Christmas Eve when the lineups were longest.

Last Friday was the retailer’s busiest day of the year, with stores across Ontario making $41.5 million, said LCBO spokesperson Heather MacGregor. Saturday was the second busiest day of the year when the LCBO made $39.3 million in sales.

To facilitate the crush of customers this season, the LCBO hired 2,079 temporary employees as of Dec. 7 to work at stores across the province. The hiring period runs from mid-November to Dec. 31, MacGregor said.

On Monday, background Christmas music at the Queens Quay location was nearly drowned out by the clanging of bottles and steady ‘cha-ching’ of cash registers as customers streamed in and out of the store with their purchases.

“It’s so much easier to give people liquor,” said Althea Gomes, 33, who had picked up about a half-dozen bottles of wine for family members.